Something different, and not entirely Transformers related, but rather an homage to an earlier era of the Transformers comics to start the week. Cartoonist R. Sikoryak has been working for a long while on a webcomic illustrating the Apple iTunes Terms and Conditions, a project that will now be released in colour by Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly.

Where's the relevance, you might ask? One of the pages, the one about Third Party Materials and Objectionable Materials, is made to resemble the work on the Marvel Transformers comics by none other than Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman! You can check out more info on the book, and the page in question, below.

Master satirist tackles the contract everyone agrees to but no one reads

For his newest project, R. Sikoryak tackles the monstrously and infamously dense legal document, iTunes Terms and Conditions, the contract everyone agrees to but no one reads. In a word for word 94-page adaptation, Sikoryak hilariously turns the agreement on its head – each page features an avatar of Apple cofounder and legendary visionary Steve Jobs juxtaposed with a different classic strip such as Mort Walker’s Beatle Bailey, or a contemporary graphic novel such as Craig Thompson’s Blankets or Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.

Adapting the legalese of the iTunes Terms and Conditions into another medium seems like an unfathomable undertaking, yet Sikoryak creates a surprisingly readable document, far different from its original, purely textual incarnation and thus proving the accessibility and flexibility of comics. When Sikoryak parodies Kate Beaton’s Hark A Vagrant peasant comics with Steve Jobs discussing objectionable material or Homer Simpson as Steve Jobs warning of the penalties of copyright infringement, Terms and Conditions serves as a surreal record of our modern digital age where technology competes with enduringly ironclad mediums.

We return to comics artist Robert Sikoryak, whose Transformers-related work we first saw here, for his next project - of a more political bend than the previous Terms and Conditions adaptation, to say the least: The Unquotable Trump. With throwbacks to 90s comics such as Godzilla, 300, Black Widow and Transformers: Generation 2, among many others, Sikoryak has used quotes from the current president of the US on drawings that portray him as a (mostly villainous) character in those books - giving us the likes of Trumpzilla, Trump SuspenStories, The Unquotable Trump, and Trumpsformers: Generalization 1! Take a look below at the Jhiaxus portrayal and an explanation of the process, and find out more here.

After the November 2016 election, Robert Sikoryak felt an urge he couldn’t resist. Referring to the victory of Donald Trump, the award-winning cartoonist says “I really just wanted to put something out in the world that just said, ‘I object.’” That work is The Unquotable Trump, a collection that uses some of the president’s most infamous utterances on classic comic book covers.

[..]

When I began the project, I only wanted to focus on what he said that was objectionable while he was running for president. So after I made that mini and was expanding into the book, I was trying to touch on other topics that he covered, other opinions that he expressed that ran the gamut of what someone running for president might say. I’m really kind of fascinated by 90's “mainstream” comics, the density of the drawing, the attitude, and all of the radicalness of them and I thought this quote was a good summation of his military policy. Saying he was the most militaristic person in the room, he always has to be the best one, or the “most” one.

And this Transformers character [Commander Jhiaxus], he’s actually a character who’s outside the Decepticons and the Autobots. He’s from a third group, a different faction that’s completely untrustworthy. I was like “Yeah, that sounds like [Trump]!” I was really happy I chose that character because i didn’t want to put him in the place of one of the Autobots. I really wanted him to be either the villain or the loose cannon. Most of the covers work that way. There’s probably a few I’ve misconstrued, but I hope that if you had the original context, you’d be like, “Oh, I get it” with regard to his relationship to the characters.

Trump as Jhiaxus? That's actually not a bad analogy. But then who is the Liege Maximo? Also, it would have been even better if he replaced Megatron with Obama or Hillary. It would have been accurate, anyway.

Selling my Studio Series Bumblebee.PM me if interested.

Burn wrote:Alpha Bravo...He's a helicopter in a team of jets. That's just dumb.

I think that Trump was clearly in mind with IDW's most recent take on Sentinel Prime: he's a giant orange guy who looses his head, wants to make Cybertron "great again" by getting rid of the colonists &Decepticons (immigrants), and was generally seen by most as a douche.

Glad to see this posted. It's still transformers news in spite of the divisive topic. I thought it was really well done. Like him or not, his phrasing does sound like 1980s comic book dialogue written on a pre-teen reading level.

When eating planets alone isn't enough to satisfy the Chaos Bringer's hunger, Unicron comes to Earth to fill up on McDonald's. McDonald's golden arches will light our darkest hour (when the Chaos Bringer would not share) by clogging his arteries, raising his blood pressure, and giving him diabetes.

Please don't diminish the good image of Optimus Prime by comparing him to that disgraceful man who is soiling the legacy of the Presidency. Trump is an extreme embarrassment to all of us Americans and our country. Hopefully we don't get nuked because of his inability to keep his mouth shut.

In case you need a reminder, here are a few more outrageous and idiotic things Trump has said:

You know what, why link to other websites when I can just link to the source itself in order to view many years worth of some of the scariest words to ever come out of a "President's" mouth. Without further ado ladies and gentleman, I'll let Donald J Trump's extreme idiocy speak for itself: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump

Please don't diminish the good image of Optimus Prime by comparing him to that disgraceful man who is soiling the legacy of the Presidency. Trump is an extreme embarrassment to all of us Americans and our country. Hopefully we don't get nuked because of his inability to keep his mouth shut.

In case you need a reminder, here are a few more outrageous and idiotic things Trump has said:

You know what, why link to other websites when I can just link to the source itself in order to view many years worth of some of the scariest words to ever come out of a "President's" mouth. Without further ado ladies and gentleman, I'll let Donald J Trump's extreme idiocy speak for itself: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump

I seem to remember that episode in the 80s where Optimus was in a quintesson court with sexual allegations from Elita-1

MR Optimus Prime wrote:Thank you R. Sikoryak for making Transformers look like an IDIOTIC comic. Thank you Seibertron even more for sinking so low as to post about it.

Yeah I know. I am expecting a mod to post in here to knock off all the political stuff any second. Oh wait, lol.

There wasn't a need for mod intervention. Calm discussion is welcomed and encouraged, regardless of topic. Just make sure it doesn't degenerate into a flame war. Everyone has his/her own opinion, respect that individual's right to express it.

Personally, I'm not offended by Trump and the stuff he says, but I do understand why some people are. I wish he was a little more thoughtful considering the position he's in, but I'll take a loudmouth over a conniving manipulator like Hillary or Obama any day.

Selling my Studio Series Bumblebee.PM me if interested.

Burn wrote:Alpha Bravo...He's a helicopter in a team of jets. That's just dumb.

Motto:"A single termination is a tragedy. A million terminations is a statistic."

Weapon: Fusion-Powered Particle Blaster

Rodimus Prime wrote:Personally, I'm not offended by Trump and the stuff he says, but I do understand why some people are. I wish he was a little more thoughtful considering the position he's in, but I'll take a loudmouth over a conniving manipulator like Hillary or Obama any day.

This, pretty much. Trump may be a blowhard, but there are worse things to be. And if we're talking "Stupid things politicians have said" how about Hillary ranting that her supporters weren't working hard enough, and that anyone who opposed her was a "Deplorable"?

Christ! This is the one place that I thought I could count on not having to hear about Trump. This place was like my escape. And now we have a comic and TF tie-in. And its on the front page, and likely on the banner for a while.

(Note: I'm not criticizing the site for putting something that is relevant to TF-dom, I'm just lamenting that there is no escape from hearing about the a-hole in chief.)

In order to comply with the FTC's endorsement guidelines, we hereby inform this site's viewers that we occasionally receive sample products, content, or other forms of media from various companies in order for us to provide content of interest to our readers. Some of the content on this site are sponsored posts for which we have been compensated. Some of the links to external sites posted on this site may automatically be converted to an affiliate link for which we may be compensated. We are a participant in several affiliate programs with retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, eBay, and other affiliate programs. These affiliate advertising programs are designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to those affiliated sites.